Verlincia Roach, 62, and Carol Fillmore, 79, both of Washington, D.C., are drawing from decades of hard-won financial experience to help the next generation build lasting stability.
Nobody hands you a manual on how to handle money. For many Americans, especially those who grew up in households where finances were rarely discussed, the education came through trial, error, and consequence. Now, two Washington, D.C., women are making sure the next generation does not have to learn those lessons the hard way.
Verlincia Roach, 62, and Carol Fillmore, 79, have spent years reflecting on their own financial journeys and are increasingly vocal about what they wish they had known sooner. Their stories are different in their details but united in their message: financial literacy is not a luxury. It is a necessity, and it needs to start early.
Verlincia Roach, 62: from spending everything to investing with intention
Roach grew up in a home where money was not something adults talked about openly. The unspoken lesson she absorbed as a child was simple and ultimately costly when money came in, you spent it. That mindset followed her into adulthood, leading to debt and difficult run ins with bill collectors that she now speaks about candidly.
The turning point came when she became a single mother. The weight of responsibility shifted her entire relationship with money. She began to understand that how you think about spending today directly shapes what is available to you tomorrow.
That perspective now drives the guidance she passes on to her grandson. She is firm about steering him away from chasing name brand items and the social pressure that comes with them, encouraging him instead to put money to work through savings and early investment. In her view, the short term appeal of material things is simply not worth the long-term cost.
Carol Fillmore, 79: why financial education must start in grade school
Fillmore’s introduction to financial reality came even earlier in life. Growing up as one of ten children raised by a single mother, she understood from a young age that money was limited and that every dollar had to count. By 15, she was already working to cover her own basic needs. By 19, she was a single mother herself.
Those years gave her a practical financial education that no classroom had offered her, and that absence is exactly what concerns her most about how young people are being raised today. She believes schools are waiting far too long to introduce meaningful financial concepts and advocates for money management to be woven into curriculums as early as fourth grade.
Her approach to building good habits is straightforward. She believes children should earn their allowances through chores rather than receive them without accountability, and that a portion of any money earned should be set aside before anything else is touched. The principle she internalized pay yourself first, then handle everything else is one she considers essential for any young person trying to build a stable future.
Why these conversations matter now
Roach and Fillmore are part of a broader, growing movement of older adults who are choosing to speak openly about money in ways that previous generations rarely did. For many Black families in particular, financial topics were historically treated as private or even shameful, a silence that often left younger members without the tools they needed to avoid the same pitfalls.
What makes these two women’s perspectives especially valuable is that they are not speaking from textbooks. They are speaking from lived experience, from the specific, unglamorous moments where financial decisions had real and lasting consequences. That authenticity carries a weight that no financial planning seminar can easily replicate.
Both women agree that the culture around money needs to shift, not just in schools, but at home. When parents and caregivers talk openly about budgeting, saving, and the difference between wants and needs, children absorb those values in ways that stay with them. That kind of early, consistent exposure builds the instincts that carry people through unexpected financial hardship later in life.
The message Roach and Fillmore are sending to younger generations is not about perfection. It is about awareness, intentionality, and starting wherever you are with whatever you have.
